o p e n + info.

[ernestness]

"You look just like a male role actress," the girl exclaimed.
Ernest replied, "Except no one pays me even a measly salary to dress this way."

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quick n o t e s.

[ernestness]

ernest hayashi (pen name/nickname, real name: hayashi eri). age: 31. sexuality: gay.

from tokyo, japan. has studied english lit at a prestigious university in new york when she was younger. has a master's in japanese lit from a university in tokyo.

freelance translator, published poet and on the daily, editor in chief at a niche literary magazine called, own voice, that only features lgbt+ writers.

big butch energy. proud cat dad to a rescue named cleo. can't cook for the life of her and eats take-away more often than not.

interests and abilities include: karate (ashihara, black belt), shopping (she's a bit of a shopaholic) dancing (though she'll tell you she's got two left feet, but those kpop dance videos can go hard or go home) and museum/art gallery-going.

perpetually single, not really looking, either (mostly because every girl she falls for seems to end up getting married to a man).

youngest child of a wealthy family. they generally ignore her existence, though. the feeling is mutual.

p e r m i s s i o n s.

[ernestness]

in c h a r a c t e r
physical affection: she's not the most affectionate, unless you're a pretty girl, but she'll be polite about it, depending on cr.
physical violence: i'm really bad at writing fight scenes, so i'd rather not, but feel free to assume she's been in a fight. she's the type.
relationships: f/f only. however, ernest isn't really looking for anything long-term at this point in her storyline and i'm more interested in gen than shipping, as a rule, so keep that in mind.
magical info: no magical powers.
medical info: nothing of note.
offensive subjects/triggers: strained family relationships, implied homophobia.

out of c h a r a c t e r
backtagging: yes, please.
threadhopping: no.
fourthwalling: no.
not interested in: smut.
brackets/prose: brackets pref.

i n f o.

[ernestness]

Ernest has long since accepted the fact that she was in every way accidental. Being the third child and only girl born to the wealthy and affluent Hayashi family, founders of one of Japan's up and coming fashion brands (Sabi) centered on European retro styles, almost ten years after her youngest brother, Ernest (given name, Eri) was nothing but an afterthought to her parents. With two brothers who would take over business, Ernest wasn't afforded an actual role in her family structure, especially once she'd reached puberty and began showing a distaste for men, so that an agreeable marriage started to seem unlikely.

In an effort to make her useful to them, Ernest was eventually sent to New York City to study at a university there, where she took a bachelor degree in English literature. While in New York, she would also come to terms with her sexuality (lesbian) and reclaim her own gender expression, returning to Japan short-haired and wearing male clothing, defining herself as butch. This was thanks to her introduction to her classmate, Cas (Cassidy, but no one called her that), who was a stone butch herself and took Ernest on tour around the gay milieu in the city. They became close friends, Cas serving as her mentor and inspiration while Ernest reinvented herself. It was also Cas who gave Ernest her name, the first time they met they had an exchange where Ernest misheard "earnest" as "ernest" and thought the other girl was addressing her by this name. Once the misunderstanding had been settled, Ernest decided she liked it so much that she started using it.

After three years in the US, Ernest returned to Tokyo where she would finish her education with a master's degree in Japanese literature as well as pass a translator's exam in English, meaning she could now work as a translator. And for the first couple of years after finishing university, this would be her job, translating English literature to Japanese. However, she was beginning to feel dissatisfied with the LGBT+ representation in modern Japanese literature, so with the help of her gay friend, Akio, who worked in the publishing industry, they began working on a magazine for LGBT+ writers to share short stories and poetry. During this process, Ernest would attend a course on creative writing at her local university and realize that she had a talent for writing poetry herself. Her professor realized so as well and introduced her to a literary agent who would soon get her discovered by a small publishing house. By the age of 28, Ernest had published her first poetry collection. By the age of 30, Akio and she had got Own Voice, their LGBT+ literary magazine up and running with some success.

Her parents might not be pleased, but at least it seemed Ernest had inherited their talent for making things happen. And not accidentally.